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The Unknown Destination

It was 2 o' clock on a Sunday morning. Ravi slept off while reading a novel. Suddenly a light gleamed into his eyes. The light was coming out of his mobile phone which he had placed on the novel. The light was so bright that he was unable to open his eyes. Has my phone turned into a superhero? Ravi thought his phone has developed super powers. He was still subconscious but was exultant that he was being the only witness to this superpower introduction.

"O wizard of the deadly night! Who art thou?” he asked his phone with his eyes still struggling to see beyond the light and hands trying to cover the eyes. He got no reply. He asked once more - still no reply. By this time, he had opened his eyes enough to see that it was Sujesh calling him. Sujesh was drunk and was in the minimum sense of recognizing the person and the reason he had called; Ravi hanged up. What was I thinking when I questioned my phone?- Aftereffects of reading children's fantasy novel. Ravi laughed at himself and went to the bedroom.

The next day when he was still on bed, he found something unusual. His phone had a note posted on the wallpaper. It read, "Send a mail to your friend!"He wondered if he had done this himself last night. No, why would I write such things? Ravi wrote a mail to his friend in Mumbai and pressed ‘Send’. Ravi did not understand what happened the next moment but a moment after that, he was still looking at his phone but he was lying in a new place; announcements, paper stalls, noise and full of people. His face: full of questions and some traces that he drooled last night. His hair: shabby. His shorts: printed with colourful flowers on them. Each and every passer-by stared and ignored him. It took him a while to rewind and comprehend what had happened. It was a railway station in Mumbai; Sandhurst Road, where his friend lived.

He had to go back. This was possible only if he sent a mail to his own id, probably. He took a sigh of relief when he reached back home but was amazed and baffled at what his phone just did to him. He freshened up, sat on his sofa and opened the mail app on the phone. He tried entering the id of a friend who stayed in Delhi, just a few blocks away from him. He reached in front of this building and fell down as there was no sofa on the road. This was working and he just could not believe it. His phone teleported him to the receiver’s location!

He travelled to Berlin, Paris, Istanbul, Rome, Tokyo, Jakarta, Los Angeles, Seoul, New York; and roamed the entire world. He would not go to work and make plans for the tours. He tried to do everything in a hurry because he feared that his phone would lose the superpower one day.

After a month, he had covered most of the places that he wished to go. He saw the whole world. While going to bed, he thought of something wild; he decided to try a new thing. He sent a mail to a random mail id. He reached somewhere. It was a desert. There was nothing in sight but a room with an antenna on the top of it. Ravi went close to that room and knocked the door; the door was open. He went inside. There was a man: the one who Ravi sent the mail to. The man was breathing heavily. He had his head down on his computer table. He had long unkempt hair, long beard and wore a brown ragged kurta and a white pyjama which had turned brown due to dust. “Do you need help?” Ravi asked the man. The man tried to move but was unable to get up. Ravi went and tried helping him to get up. With huge roar, the man got up and caught Ravi’s neck and started biting his hand. Ravi tried to resist. After much struggle, he stamped on the man’s foot, punched on his face and ran out of the room. The man followed him. “I am hungry!” the man shouted in a hoarse voice as he ran behind Ravi. Ravi was shocked. There was nothing that he could hit that man with.

Ravi suddenly realized that he had done a big mistake. He had kept his mobile phone on the man’s computer table when he had tried to lift him up. In spite of being sure that he kept the phone in the room, he searched his pockets twice in the hope that he may get his phone. Damn! I forgot my mobile in the room. He was already tired and the man was running closely behind him. Ravi had to go back now. He took a handful of sand and threw it towards the man but due the air current, it went into Ravi’s eyes and throat. Ravi tried to open his eyes but he couldn’t. Every time he opened his eyes, he could see the man coming closer and closer. Ravi fell down on his knees; he was exhausted and was coughing continuously. The man got closer and leaped towards him. Ravi tricked him and got aside. He removed his shirt and started beating the man with the shirt till the man fell down. Now he started running towards the room. The man was still following him.

Ravi reached the room and picked up his mobile phone. He started typing his email id in the ‘To’ box. The man arrived on the door and started grunting loudly. Ravi panicked and pressed on the send button without typing the complete email id. Ravi was gone from the desert but he never reached home. The email id he typed never existed and from then on, Ravi never existed. He went missing in the communication.

P.S. This is an attempt to win the ASUS Zenphone in a contest organised by Indiblogger and ASUS. An ASUS Zenphone comes with superpowers that make your life easy. Ravi didn’t have an ASUS but you can have one by clicking here and check the features by clicking here.

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A fun, food and film loving engineer who finds pleasure in writing. Music gratifies me and I desire to be able to play the piano sometime. Benjamin Franklin said - "Do something worth writing or write something worth reading" to which I believe I would rather write just for the love of it!